13 January 2010

Minor whine

I had to install a couple of fonts on my work machine. On my mac, of course, there's the FontBook software that comes standard on OSX. You tell it to find the fonts on your media, install them, and get on with your life. I went to the Windows boxes (one was Vista, one was XP), and this is the screen I got on both of them.



Really? Is that the best they could do? Also, it didn't like the folders. I had to go back to the mac, search out all the .otf file, put them in a folder on a jump drive, go back to the PC, and have it done with. Why didn't I search on the PC? Mainly because I wanted to be done with the search some time this week. The biggest annoyance I have on the OSX system is that it searches in the full hard drive by default. This is fixed by clicking on "this folder" rather than "my computer" or whatever. That takes seconds.

The biggest whine I have about the PC search interface is that it can't decide what exactly to look like, and stay that way. On the XP box, it opens up that stupid dog, which is of no help. I know exactly what I'm searching for, and can do without the help. On the vista machine ...

Well, the less said, the better.

Come on, Microsoft. I know you're creating serious business machines, but can't you at least try to make the experience less painful? What is so terrible about the font software recognising the folders, and using them? It's sensible, and keeps things organised. And really, is that the absolute best you could come up with for an installing new fonts dialog? I've seen what you've done with the new Add/Remove Programs dialog. It looks damn nice, what with the hiding of the system updates, and other ugly things that get in the way. It's also sensible with how it all works out, because you click a few buttons, and everything works out in the end.

This is just a mess.